THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Party leaders exude hope with just hours left for the votes in local body polls to be counted. LDF convenor and CPM state secretary A Vijayaraghavan opined that the Left Front will make more headway in the polls than the last time. Left’s rule is assured in more district panchayats. There will also be a Left rule in Kerala Congress’ strongholds, he said.

Vijayaraghavan said the BJP will not capture Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. If BJP wins in the capital city, it will give a different message. Therefore, the Left Front had taken every precaution in areas including selection of candidates to prevent the BJP. Vijayaraghavan opined that they don’t have any issues with the NCP and that there are no problems to be discussed in the front.

BJP state president K Surendran claimed that they would get three times as many seats in the local body elections. Both the fronts will lose when the votes are counted. Surendran said traditional Hindu-Christian voters would abandon the UDF and the BJP is sure to capture the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.

In Thiruvananthapuram, there is an understanding between the UDF, LDF and the Muslim organizations. The BJP has made preparations to surpass this understanding. The BJP will win by overcoming cross-voting. Looking at the figures of 2015, the LDF and the UDF will face a sharp decline and the BJP would gain benefits, he said.

UDF convenor M M Hasan said the UDF would make gains in majority of the districts. He said there is no concern in Kottayam and the result would weaken the chief minister. Hasan said the chief minister is overconfident and that they have no alliance with the Welfare Party but only an understanding.

There is no doubt that the UDF will have the same dominance that it had earlier in Kottayam. The chief minister is justifying C M Raveendran, said Hassan.